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Mots-Clés : Escherichia coli, marqueur microbiologique, ETEC/F4, réseau de production,
ferme, abattoir, porc, environnement, source de contamination, distribution
Abstract
Escherichia coli is an important constituent of the pig intestinal microbiota. The transmission
of pathogenic E. coli between herds and a slaughterhouse in a production network, in
particular to illustrate its dissemination in a zoonotic perspective, is not well characterized.
The detection of E. coli virulence genes could be used as an indicator of contamination to
describe transmission between herds and the slaughterhouse. The objective was to identify an
E. coli contamination marker to describe some transmission modes of pathogenic E. coli in a
well-defined swine production network. A defined geographical area containing 10 farms, a
slaughterhouse, and a transportation network was selected. Environmental samples were
collected at various sites inside and outside the farms (3 visits), at the slaughterhouse yard (2
visits), and on the vehicles of the animal transporter. Three consecutive production batches
were followed during 12 months. The presence in the samples of virulence genes (eltB, estA,
estB, faeG, stxA, stx2A, eae, cnf, papC, iucD, tsh, fedA) commonly associated with pathogenic
E. coli was examined by conventional multiplex PCR. The monitoring of the virulence gene
profile distribution both temporally and spatially resulted in the proposing of an ETEC/F4
contamination marker. ETEC\F4 positive samples were defined by the detection of at least one
ETEC enterotoxin gene (estB, estA and eltB) in combination with the faeG gene encoding F4
fimbriae in samples by PCR. The distribution of ETEC/F4 positive samples suggests that the
slaughterhouse yard may act as a reservoir of contamination frequently visited by transporters,
which are mechanical vectors of contamination between herds. These results illustrated the